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Abstract

Integrating physiological and behavioural arousal with social context is fundamental to understanding affect in dogs. Cook et al. (2018) have made a worthy start towards illuminating the neural basis of dog affect underlying resource loss. However, their study depends on retrospective behaviour reports versus direct testing, and an interpretation of differential neural activation that is based on too few dogs. Research groups conducting canine brain-imaging work might: (1) consider collaborative approaches to augment sample sizes and replicability, and (2) take a recent lesson from dog behavioural research regarding a more cautious approach to applying functional labels to physiological and/or behavioural arousal.

Author Biography

Carolyn J. Walsh is an Associate Professor of Psychology and Co-Chair of the Cognitive and Behavioural Ecology Program at Memorial University of Newfoundland. She studies the relationships among social behaviour, physiology, cognition, and individual differences (personality) in birds and mammals, with a particular interest in dogs. She is the PI for the Canine Research Unit (CRU). play.psych.mun.ca/cru